2019: Anxiety grips opposition parties over plots to rig polls
…Begin counter plots
The usual frenzy associated with general elections in Nigeria has been inexplicably lull just one month to the February 16 Presidential election, but there is palpable fear by the opposition political parties that the President Muhammadu Buhari and his ruling All Progressives Congress (APC) have allegedly perfected plots to rig the 2019 elections.
Businessday however gathered that the opposition parties are deep into their anti-rigging mechanisms to stop President Muhammadu Buhari and his ruling All Progressives Congress (APC) from the alleged rigging. Therefore a combination of factors suffuse the political landscape, upon which the opposition especially the People’s Democratic Party (PDP) based their apprehension that President Buhari has allegedly perfected his acts to rig the election. Tenure of the IG of Police/ Decline of Assent to the Amended Electoral Act Businessday had reported that there appears to be no haste on the part of President Buhari to let the Inspector General of Police (IGP) Idris Ibrahim, go after his tenure expired in January 2019. There are strong indications that the President will extend the tenure of the IGP by six months. Ibrahim Idris clocked 35 years in service on Thursday January 3 having enlisted into the police on January 3, 1984. According to the service rule, civil servants are to retire on completion of 35 years in service or on attainment of 60 years of age.
The out- going IGP will however, be 60 years of age on January 15, having been born on January 15, 1959. So which ever rule that applies, the IGP will retire officially in January. Although the President has not made any conclusive statement on the matter, the opposition has cashed in on it raising alarm that the President intends to use Ibrahim to rig the elections because of his alleged partisanship and loyalty to the President.
There is also another disturbing issue of the declining of Assent by the President Buhari to sign the Amended Electoral Act Bill passed by the National Assembly. The President’s excuse is that the Bill came close to the elections but the opposition insists the President is scared of the provisions of the amended Electoral Act because of the electronic transmission of results, which might be difficult to manipulate.
On these issues a member of the opposition People’s Democratic Party (PDP), and the acclaimed National Chairman of the Reformed All Progressives Congress (R-APC) Buba Galadima, expressed certainty that President Buhari will retain the IGP allegedly for nefarious reasons during the elections. He said, “Buhari just wants to use the IGP as an attack dog during the elections and that is why we are saying that we must come and ensure Buhari goes in 2019. It is not in the interest of this country that this man (Buhari) continues; he will destroy the small success that we have made in this democracy.” On the Electoral Act, Galadima also alleged that “Buhari has already decimated one of the indices of making elections correct by refusing to sign the Electoral Act for the fear that to strengthen the Electoral Act of 2018 will stop his people from rigging and they are telling him that once he signs it that is his death warrant.” Galadima however, noted that the PDP and its Presidential candidate
Atiku Abubakar, have also set up an “Anti-rigging Mechanism” to counter all the alleged rigging plots of the ruling APC. He however did not disclose the details of the anti-rigging plots but added that
the mechanism is potent and efficacious enough to dislodge whatever plan of the Buhari government to rig the polls.
Python Dance
The federal government had earlier announced that it will de- ploy soldiers nationwide under the “Operation Python Dance” to provide security during the elections. However, a public affairs analyst Katch Ononuju said that the Operation Python Dance being planned across the nation is to enable Buhari to deploy partisan security forces to allegedly intimidate voters during the election reminiscent of how security forces blocked voters from voting and allegedly paved the way for the APC to win the governorship election in Osun state in September.
He alleged that because Buhari has not achieved anything in almost four years as President, he is preparing to rig the elections by writing the results and forcing people to go court, warning that this
could plunge the nation into deeper crisis as the other parties will not take it lightly with the President.
“Buhari has nothing to campaign on, he has now brought in the destabilizing logistic of frightening everybody by deploying soldiers, claiming is a python dance. Those are soldiers that will allow the APC
chieftains to move about freely and as they move about freely they legitimize the fraud. So the country could go deeper into crisis,” he warned.
He also noted that the for- mer Vice President, Atiku is a potent threat to the alleged rigging campaign of Buhari and would use his international, local connection and deep understanding of the institutions to thwart whatever plot of the Buhari group to rig the polls, which he said could trigger crisis in Nigeria. Ononuju also expressed no doubts that Buhari will retain the IGP. “The IG will stay and do the job for Buhari because Buhari is so frightened about the 2019 election that he will never entrust another person with the IGP,” he said.
And from the civil society, Auwal Musa Rafsanjani, the Executive Director of the Civil Society Legislative and Advocacy Centre (CISLAC), is disturbed by the growing apprehension of Nigerians that the 2019 elections might be rigged, which he attributed to desperation on the path of the political players. He told Businessday in an interview that it is being alleged that the security apparatus are
being prepared to do what is not really seen in the conduct of election management. “That is why we want to constructively continue to engage even the security sector to let them know the implication of anything that they will do to undermine the integrity of the electoral system. So it is a serious concern. A lot of people believe that there are some people being prepared to come and rig the election and cause violence. This is a big concern for the civil society,” he said.
He also lamented the decline of Assent to the Amended Electoral Act Bill by President Muhammadu Buhari. He said “one of the issues is the fact that we had the problem that even the Electoral Act that was amended was not signed into law by the President. That was a setback in terms of ensuring that we have a transparent, free and fair election.
Alleged INEC’S Connivance Spokesman of the Coalition of United Political Parties (CUPP), Ikenga Ugochinyere told Businessday in an interview that the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) is steadily proving to be a tool in the hands of the Buhari and the APC government to rig the elections. He criticized the INEC draft guidelines for the election alleging that it is a leeway to rig the elections as the INEC chairman Mahmood Yakubu, allegedly produced the guidelines without consulting the stakeholders.
He pointed out that some of the clauses in the draft guidelines which stipulated that accreditation and voting will go simultaneously will make it difficult to know the number of those accredited and could therefore make the process easy to be manipulated. He demanded that the stakeholders want to know the number of the accredited voters before voting commences.
“INEC guidelines will be the biggest electoral heist in history. Beginning from section 8 to 11, the INEC chairman said that Smart Card Reader shall be used for accreditation. He went further in section 10b to say that the method of accreditation shall be authentication of be fingerprints. But after the two clauses where he used the world ‘Shall’, in the others, he muddled up things. Under section 10, 11, he
now said that when you come to the polling unit and your name is not on the Voters Register, but the card reader has read your PVC that you will be given a ballot to cast your vote.
“That is madness because going by the provisions of the Constitution and Electoral Act, the Register of Voters is the only constitutionally recognized instrument and basis for you to come near a polling unit. The card reader is unknown to law, that is why the law that would have made the card reader mandatory was the one that the President ran away from sign into law.
“Under the section 11 of the guideline INEC chairman said if you go to a polling unit and they put your Permanent Voters Card (PVC) to a Smart Card reader if our name is Mr Musa and when they put in the Card Reader it reads Nkechi that you will still be given ballot to go cast your vote simply because your name is on the register of voters. “The INEC chairman also said that if in the cause of accreditation and the Card Reader machine presented another person’s name that is not your own, you will vote and if you go and somebody has voted in your name but you prove you are the original person that was supposed to have cast that vote, you will be issued a ballot to vote.
“Now these people buying PVCS have you now realized that they have a reason for buying the PVCS? Were we not asking how they will use it? So in that case when I buy it and give to Nkechi and she will enter the polling unit her finger print will not be read but her name is on the register and she votes.
“So you see why Osinbajo is junketing all over the market place collecting PVCS and paying 10,000 because they know that the INEC Chairman has opened a backed door for them. That is why the INEC chairman refused to debate the guideline and refused to involve the parties. He did not consult us, he went in the night, drafted it inside Aso Rock and smuggled into our meeting,” Ogochinyere disclosed.